and…oh, just lovely to see that we are still catering to the lowest common denominator and still claiming that race is the problem. Just so we can forget that it is parents and society that enshrines ignorance.

Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High’s School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley’s dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Paul Gibson, an alternate parent representative on the School Governance Council, said that information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students. He said the decision to consider cutting the labs in order to redirect resources to underperforming students was virtually unanimous.

]]>By: WhatMeWorryhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/12/28/the-book-im-most-anticipating-for-2010/#comment-36519
Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:28:08 +0000http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=5737#comment-36519That ‘we share 98.7% of our DNA’, or whatever, is a very small deal when you consider we share maybe 40% of our DNA with daffodils.
]]>By: Busiturtlehttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/12/28/the-book-im-most-anticipating-for-2010/#comment-36518
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:15:08 +0000http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=5737#comment-36518Somehow I get the impression that by the end of this book the husband is the one with the most hurt feelings.
]]>By: John Kwokhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/12/28/the-book-im-most-anticipating-for-2010/#comment-36517
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:24:49 +0000http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=5737#comment-36517I’m looking forward to Rick Moody’s next novel, which will be science fiction.
]]>By: ARJhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/12/28/the-book-im-most-anticipating-for-2010/#comment-36516
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:14:36 +0000http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=5737#comment-36516Fascinating… the plight of all the world’s primates (…save one) is really quite dire, and anything that calls attention to them is a plus.
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